Hello,
And welcome to the session.
Today we're going to use the power of calm breathing to enhance our mindfulness practice.
Whilst it's true that mindfulness meditation is about observing reality as it is for what it is,
Seeing what arises and simply watching it,
It's also true that observing pleasant feelings,
At least for those of us beginning our practice,
Is far more palatable.
We can sit for far longer and we want to lean into our practice far more.
So for beginning practitioners,
Establishing a calm,
Relaxed mental state before we begin our mindfulness practice is ideal.
If we're going to observe reality,
Wouldn't it be good if that reality was calm?
So what we're going to do is employ the power of something known as a physiological breath.
Animals do it and kids do it naturally,
And we can learn to do it too.
The practice is quite simple.
You simply breathe in to full capacity and then take a little bit of an extra breath and then breathe all the way out.
A long,
Slow,
Calm exhale through the mouth.
So you're going to breathe in through the nose and then just add just a little bit extra at the top and then long and slow breath out through the mouth.
I just want to highlight that we don't want to be doing this meditation practice or any sort of breath work while striving or submerged in water or any other place where we may be vulnerable.
It's best to be seated or laying down.
Let's get yourself nice and comfortable and let's practice this breath.
You ready?
Remember,
You breathe in through the nose as deeply as possible and then just try and get a little bit extra and then a long and slow exhale.
And you can choose to hold at the top and at the bottom if you like.
So hold the concept of that physiological breath in mind as we settle into the idea of a mindfulness practice.
This practice will be quite simple.
You're just going to choose a meditation object like the sensations of the breath at the nose or the sounds in the environment or something that you can see and when your mind wanders,
You gently acknowledge it and bring it back.
That's all you'll be doing for the duration of the sit.
But we're going to lead into our session with five physiological breaths.
Then we'll sit in silence,
Returning our focus back to our anchor for three minutes and then we'll end the session with another five physiological breaths.
Practicing this way only takes me about five minutes,
But I'm so much more calm,
Relaxed,
But also focused afterwards.
So get yourself comfortable and let's give it a try.
Remember,
We're going to do five breaths first,
Then we're going to sit in silence,
And then we're going to end with another five breaths.
Let's begin.
Let's begin.
So close your eyes.
Enjoy your attention to your breath.
Let's begin.
So you you you you you you you you you Okay.
So how'd you go?
I like to use the combination of calm breathing and mindfulness meditation,
Both as we practiced here as a quick five-minute respite from reality.
But you can also use calm breathing,
Just long,
Slow,
Deep breaths in through the nose and out through the mouth as a way to calm yourself down at night.
You mindfully focus on each part of your body,
Scanning through it whilst doing slow,
Calm breaths into that space,
Visualizing calm,
Healing energy,
Asking that part of the body to relax,
To let go,
To show you anything that it needs to show you.
And from there you accept it mindfully and let it go and then move on to the rest of the body.
If you want to use your breathing to calm down,
Make your out breath slow and long.
And if you want to promote calm,
Control and focus throughout your day,
Why not trigger calm breathing to something in the environment.
Perhaps every time you check your phone or touch a door handle or go to the toilet,
You do a slow,
Calm breath.
If you were to do so,
If you were to do so,
Imagine how many little breaks you'd be giving yourself each and every day.
Give it a try and let me know how you go.
Thanks for joining me.
